ed.pryce

Firstly, Hello All.

I have noticed a tendancy for my fingers that arent being used to jump around out of control (usually my 3rd and 4th) when I concentrating on using fingers 1&2. It seems poor technique so I have tried to address this.

I sit at a desk a lot of the day so have been trying excercises I can do whilst at work to pass the time.

I have noticed with my right hand, I can fold my pinky with no strain on the other fingers as shown in the picture below.


I cannot get close to this with my left without all my other fingers getting bent out of shape. which leads me to my questions -

should I be able to do this with both hands?
Would I gain anything from learning it?
How would I go about doing it?

Asking my friends shows some people can do this others cant. None of them are guitarists, so i was wondering if its possible to learn.

basically it bugs me...

Thanks

edit - I should add i play guitar the normal way round

WholeLottaIzzy

Wrong section but I learnt a great exercise the other day for independence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do5g...be_gdata_player

Don't cheat, do it right and it will help massively. Start very slow.

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ed.pryce

Ah sorry, I did look for the section as well.

Thanks for the link. quite similar to something that I have been trying.

I just find it odd how easy it is for my right hand (which obviously has no fret board work out in its life) compared to my left, which i'd have hoped was in better shape!

WholeLottaIzzy

The right side of your brain may be way more dominant than your left.

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ed.pryce

So i'm screwed or just currently screwed?

WholeLottaIzzy

I didn't say it was definitely that. You can easily train yourself. Just play and everything will fall into place eventually.

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ed.pryce

Was only joking, solid advice though.

Freepower

Well noticed, a lot of people never realise this.



1) No, it's normal for the 3rd finger to react to the pinky moving. I can't do that with either hand and I play guitar fine.

2) You might find out something interesting, I don't know anyone who can do that.

3) I would imagine lots of stretching while continuing with the finger independence work.




The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body - loosely speaking.



This is only a small portion of developing finger independence. It's as important to relax unused fingers as to move only one at a time. The "all press" technique is a good way to start out (and builds a lot more strength) but in functional playing you only want one finger actually fretting at a time.

People generally have more trouble with relaxing unused fingers so you might want to check this out as it covers that -

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Youtube (Lessons + Music)

More than 30 MP3s

ed.pryce

Cheers for the links chaps.

Plenty to be getting on with

WholeLottaIzzy

Sorry freepower, I should am been more specific. Yes, you only actually fret the note closest to the pickups. The other notes, you just rest your fingers on.

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